Lake Michigan {Campsite & Train Ride}

We went to the beach another day while we were on vacation, but Sutton was in a bad mood and didn't want to swim AT ALL. It was slightly disastrous and put us all in a bad mood. I'll do one more post with Instagram photos and maybe I'll go more in depth about that. Maybe not. :)

I thought we needed a photo of our campsite setup, and Adam was all too happy to "help" me out.

So here it is...our tent on the right, and you can kinda see the air conditioner unit on the left of it that Adam hooked up, which was a lifesaver. We moved campsites after the first night because our original spot didn't have any shade and the A/C couldn't keep up. But once the tent was under the trees, it did great. Just to the left of that mosquito tent thing (which was where we kept cooking stuff), there was a path into the trees that led to a little park. We went there several times so the kiddo could play. It was a nice little setup, I was just not a fan of the heat. It wasn't as bad as Texas would've been, but it still wasn't a cool 70 degrees. :)

Sutton is a weirdo. We put a sleeping bag next to ours for him to sleep on, and EVERY NIGHT he slept on the floor of the tent next to the sleeping bag, not on it. No blankets, no cushion, nothing. He's so strange. Our A/C actually got pretty cold at night, so we turned it warmer and put socks and pants on him since he refused to use blankets.

We split the drive home into two days, so we left our campsite Saturday morning and made an hour and a half drive to a tiny little town called North Judson, Indiana. Adam had booked us tickets to go on a train ride, which Sutton had never done before. We got there and there was a little museum and gift shop. Sutton loved playing with all the little trains.

We were a little early, so after a potty break (where Sutton decided he wanted to pee standing up, which was a first for him other than outside...it was messy), we looked around at the trains. That train on the right is the one we rode on. It had that open car that you can see with just benches in the middle, and then down a ways, there was an enclosed commuter car.

Sutton with his train ticket.

The caboose.

Finally, it was time to get on board.

We decided to show Sutton the commuter car first since that was more like a "real" train. I just love this photo of these two.

Then we moved outside where we stayed for the entire 45-minute ride. There was a tour guide who talked about the history of the town and the railroad during the ride.

Much of our little ride looked like this: Indiana farmland.

But we went through some wooded areas too, which included some old railroad tracks and bridges that have been overgrown and looked really cool!

After our ride, Sutton asked "Can we do that again sometime?" And he told the tour guide that it was "pretty awesome" as we were leaving. So I think he liked it.

We stopped at a little restaurant called the Wooden Nickel before we got back on the road, and we had a great lunch there. Once again, maybe I'll talk more about that in the Instagram post.

Lake Michigan {the Beach}

Adam and I haven't been to the beach since our honeymoon over 7 years ago in Hawaii. And Sutton had never been! So when we were planning our vacation for this summer, I knew I wanted to go to the beach.

But we didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we knew it would have to be driving distance. Our original plan was to go down to the Corpus Christi/Galveston, Texas area but we wanted to camp and with temps in the 100s...I knew that wouldn't be too fun. So we looked up north and decided on Lake Michigan.

Adam found us a great camping site at Potato Creek State Park in Indiana, which was about an hour away from the beach. The second day we were there, we drove to the beach and had an amazing day! It really seemed like the ocean because it was so big.

We built lots of sandcastles complete with rocks and feathers and secret doors to hide Sutton's toy whale.

Sutton gets a little apprehensive when it comes to water usually. He's not one of those kids that will dive right in and splash around. He went up to his waist just fine, but mostly preferred to stay near the shore where it was just foot-deep.

I was just amazed at the kids that were his age or younger that were equipped with goggles and were just running into the waves and going all the way under. Sutton wanted to hold hands to wade out. :)

Smiling for the picture, but not looking at the camera...

I asked him how old he was to try to get him to look at me. No dice. But that's how he does his 3.

There we go!

Sutton made a friend. :) There were these two older ladies that were sitting in these chairs, tanning, right next to us the whole time. One of them got up and Sutton asked me if he could go sit in her chair. I said no, that's not ours. But this lady overheard and said he could sit there if he wanted. So he went over and sat down and started talking to this lady. It was quite hilarious.

Family photo at the beach! Love. Then Daddy got us hot dogs and chips from a little hot dog cart so we could eat lunch on the beach. No pictures, but we were starving and they were yummy!

Which do you like better? The sky...?

...or the sand? :)

There was this pier to our left with a lighthouse at the end. So after we'd swam and played awhile, we decided to walk out to the lighthouse to see if we could go inside.

I took photos of the sites along the way. It was so hot, but having on a wet swimsuit definitely helped!

When we got there, we found we couldn't actually go in the lighthouse. But it was still fun to climb around it and on the rocks in the water below it.

  

I just loved the color of the water.

This is looking back at the beach where we'd swam from the lighthouse area.

We found a good spot next to these rocks but back near the beach to climb down and wade a bit more without getting too sandy again. The water felt so good after the hot walk. We got in the car to leave, and it wasn't long before...

:) I just love that sleeping face.

Just a Quick Hello!

Hello!

We're still around.

Just busy.

You know how it goes...you think that when your teacher-husband has an entire 2.5 months off of work that life is gonna be lazy and grand but HA! It's mostly the opposite. But not just mostly...ENTIRELY. Yikes.

AND...we just got back from vacation! Here's one photo until I can find time to post the rest: